Tractor day 8

Fitted the engine to the tractor today, see-sawing the engine on an ever increasing pile of wood off cuts worked, so there was no need for a hoist. Next all the controls, electrics, hydraulic pump, fuel tank, battery and starting motor had be connected.

I discovered on reassembly that the accelerator mechanism had been badly repaired/bodged with some bits of misaligned plate welded on the old OEM part. The cable snagged on the oil filter and there was a lot of friction and play. An hour of work put it right.

The electrics are a bit of nightmare, the cables are old and brittle and the most the connectors are hanging off. It's a long job trying to sort them out.

The starting motor was a sod to reconnect, I should have done it much earlier as the bolted connections were now virtually impossible to get to but somehow I managed without taking too much skin off my knuckles!

New dust boots for the steering ball joints arrived which I fitted, only the retaining wires were left but with some re-greasing the ball joints seem fine.

My neighbour Nanou re-welded a broken hinge pin for the bonnet, which he dropped off this evening.

STILL TO DO LIST

Connect horn, bumper and bonnet, re-organise cables to starter, re-connect exhaust, fill up gearbox oil, fill up engine oil, re-fuel.....try to start!